Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Researchers say new ways could increase by up to 50 percent the
number of cases of gestational diabetes that are diagnosed in the course
of pregnancy.

An Israeli research team has come up with what it says are simpler
and more accurate ways to screen pregnant women for gestational
diabetes, a condition with profound implications for the health of both
mothers and their unborn and newborn infants.

The researchers, led by Prof. Moshe Hod of Petah Tikva’s Rabin
Medical Center, proposed simple alternatives to the standard oral
glucose tolerance test, which is usually administered between the 24th
and 28th week of pregnancy and which involves drinking one or measured
doses of glucose and then testing blood sugar levels over a period of
hours.

They said using either a simple blood-glucose test, without prior
oral glucose ingestion, or measuring the size and weight of the fetus,
could increase by up to 50 percent the number of cases of gestational
diabetes that are diagnosed in the course of pregnancy.

Gestational diabetes often causes complications such as
pregnancy-induced hypertension or an exceptionally big fetus, which
increases the chances of child obesity. Every year 10,000 Israeli women –
accounting for six percent of all pregnancies – are diagnosed with the
disease. That rate is low for Western countries.

“Israeli pregnant women are younger and thinner,” said Dr. Ofra
Kalter-Leibovici, director of the Unit of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at
Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy and a member of
the research team. “Therefore they are less prone to suffer from
gestational diabetes.”

The team’s recommendations differ from those of a landmark study that
was published in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The
study, carried out by the International Association of the Diabetes and
Pregnancy Study Groups, found that the current glucose tolerance tests
fall far short of reflecting the real number of women suffering from
diabetes during pregnancy.

It recommended using a single-dose, two-hour glucose tolerance test
instead of the variant that can include successive ingestion of glucose
and multiple blood tests. This recommendation was adopted by the
American Diabetes Association.

Recent studies have shown that mild gestational diabetes can be
treated through diet and exercise, with only 10 percent of cases
requiring medical intervention.

“General practitioners can diagnose gestational diabetes in most
cases,” Kalter-Leibovici said. “These cases should not be treated by
obstetricians specializing in high-risk pregnancies, who are unable to
see all of these patients.”

The findings of the study led by Hod were recently presented at a
conference of the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research.

“We are not adopting the recommendations automatically,” Hod said.
“We examine them according to the findings of Israeli and international
studies, and measure potential financial costs. In any event, the
findings prove that the modes of diagnosis of gestational diabetes need
to change.”

A panel will be set up to devise concrete recommendations that will
in turn be submitted to respective panels of gynecologists and diabetes
specialists for approval. At a later stage they will require the stamp
of the the Health Ministry and the country’s health maintenance
organizations.

Another team, this one composed of both Israeli and American
physicians, is in the process of developing a mathematical model that
would assess the overall cost of the suggested alternatives to glucose
tolerance tests.

ACT NOW for ISRAEL: Flush ‘LUSH’ Cosmetics!

LUSH Cosmetics has quietly closed its Beverly Hills, California location several months after a group known as “Join the Boycott LA” (www.JTBLA.com) organized a protest outside the store to expose the company’s support of PLO extremism. LUSH, with headquarters in the UK and stores in over 40 countries around the world, is using its customers’ money to support the PLO’s extremist “One World Campaign”. This virulently anti-Israel organization portrays Israel as an “illegal” occupier committing crimes against “Palestine” and grossly exaggerates the suffering in Gaza, placing responsibility solely on the Israelis.

There is much more work to be done. We urge you to ACT NOW FOR ISRAEL by sending an email to customercare@lush.co.uk to protest their anti-Israel extremism.

It has come to our attention that LUSH, a leading luxury handmade cosmetics company, gives a percentage of its profits to an anti-Israel organization called “OneWorld”. Upon visiting the OneWorld website (http://freedomoneworld.org/), it is very clear that they are supported by extreme anti-Israel groups that are sympathetic to terrorist activity against the State of Israel. For example, one of the supporting groups is called “Friends of al-Aqsa”. Visiting their website speaks for itself: http://www.foa.org.uk/.

Did You Know?

Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

Did You Know?

An Israeli-initiated project is drastically lowering the mortality rate of Ethiopian children infected with the AIDS/HIV virus.

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